









ELEMEN T S 

OF 

HORTICULTURE, 



J. E. TESCHEMACHER. 




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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



CONCISE APPLICATION 

OF TUF. ' 



PRINCIPLES OF STRUCTURAL BOTANY 



HORTICULTURE, 



CHIEFLY EXTRACTED FROM THE WORKS OF LINDLEV, 
KNIGHT, HERBERT, AND OTHERS, WITH ADDI- 
TIONS AND ADAPTATIONS TO THIS CLIMATE. 

1 

By J; E. TESCHEMACHER. 




BOSTON: 

CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN. 

MDCCCXL. 






• 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by 
Charles C. Little and James Brown, in the Clerk's Office of 
the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



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; 



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BOSTON: 

FREEMAN AND BOLLES, PRINTERS, 

WASHINGTON STREET. 



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PREFACE. 



The combination of practical skill and experi- 
ence with scientific investigation and knowledge, 
the former giving results, the latter affording rea- 
sons for these results, and sketching the outlines 
of farther experiments, has always appeared the 
surest ground of obtaining information of the 
greatest value on all subjects of natural science. 

A concise and simple explanation of some of the 
prominent facts and laws of vegetable physiology so 
that they might become known to, and guide those 
agriculturists and horticulturists, whose time is too 
much occupied to permit them to go into the detail 
of the reasoning involved in the numerous experi- 
ments scattered through many volumes and pe- 
riodicals, must be of advantage. 

The valuable experiments of Knight, the works 
of Lindley, Decandolle, Herbert and others, the 
Compilations of Loudon, and some of the results 
of the extraordinary attention paid within the last 



IV PREFACE. 

fifteen years throughout Europe to the laws and 
operations of vegetable life, added to my own ex- 
perience and study of this subject, compose the 
basis on which this little publication is founded. 

The subject of Manure, and the properties of 
soils, do not strictly belong to structural botany, 
but the few details inserted regarding them cannot 
be thought misplaced. 

The diseases of Plants must be left to the Ento- 
mologist as far as the insects which infest them 
are concerned, and to the Cryptogamist as respects 
the injuries inflicted by fungi lichens and mosses. 
Nor are there any channels into which the labor's 
of those who are devoted to such branches, can be 
diverted with more interest to themselves or value 
to mankind. 

It cannot be denied that many of the advanta- 
geous practices in Horticulture and Agriculture 
have been discovered by the mere practical man, 
without any deductions from science, or the laws 
of vegetation. Yet it is probable that had the 
knowledge of these laws been earlier and more 
widely disseminated, these advantages would have 
been sooner known and more generally diffused 
than they are at present. Many are disinclined to 



PREFACE. V 

adopt a new course, and reject the old one to which 
they have been long attached, without some very- 
palpable and sufficient reasons for the change. 
But one improvement introduced and properly 
accounted for, paves the way for others, and the 
mind is prepared to inquire. In this country, 
particularly, such a frame of mind is prevalent, 
and has produced very important results in agri- 
culture ; it will do the same in horticulture, now 
comparatively in its infancy. 

It seemed, therefore, that the separation of a 
few of the principal facts concerning the structure 
and parts of vegetables from the other masses of 
botanical knowledge with which they are usually 
published, and their application to the practice of 
horticulture could not fail to be favorably received 
in this community. 

A complete treatise on these subjects cannot be 
expected in a work of this nature, but if the facts 
and reasoning give rise to new experiments, and 
produce results favorable to the progress of Horti- 
culture or Agriculture, the object of the publication 
will be completely answered. 

1* 



APPLICATION 



STRUCTURAL BOTANY 



HORTICULTURE. 



General Nature of Plants. 

Horticulture is the application of the arts 
of cultivation, to the improvement for the use 
or delight of man, as well as to the domestica- 
tion, of the vegetable kingdom. 

Agriculture and Arboriculture are included 
in this definition. 

Plants are organized bodies, composed of a 
substance called Tissue, which is so delicate 
and thin as to permit fluids and gases to pass 
through. 

This Tissue exists either in the form of mi- 



8 GENERAL NATURE OF PLANTS. 

nute bladders called cells, which are filled with 
juices and lie close to each other, leaving how- 
ever intermediate passages where they do not 
touch — this is Cellular tissue; or in slender 
tubes called woody fibre which are closed at 
each end, conical, and placed side by side. 

Or in a fibre either rolled up spirally like a 
wire spring, or forming long cylindrical vessels 
placed end to end, which finally become con- 
tinuous and lie close to each other ; this is called 
vascular tissue — from vas a vessel. 

Cellular tissue when just formed is very lax 
or coheres loosely and possesses great powers 
of absorption. 

Late microscopic discoveries have enabled 
botanists to distinguish several varieties of Cel- 
lular tissue. Even their names, however, 
would be misplaced here. 

It constitutes the soft and brittle parts of 
plants, as pith, pulp, the soft part between the 
veins of leaves, the tender parts of the flower, 
fruit, &c. 

Succulent plants, as the Cactus, have an ex- 
cessive development of this tissue. 

It may be considered the most essential kind 
of tissue, because, while no plants exist without 
it, many are composed of nothing else. 



GENERAL NATURE OF PLANTS. 9 

Woody Fibre is what causes stiffness and 
tenacity in certain parts of plants ; hence it is 
found in the veins of leaves, and in bark, and 
it constitutes the principal part of the wood. 

The most remarkable form of vascular tissue 
is the Spiral vessel, which has the power of 
unrolling with elasticity when stretched. 

Other kinds of vascular tissue are incapable 
of unrolling, but break when stretched. 

Spiral vessels are not found in the wood or 
bark, and rarely in the roots of plants. 

Vascular tissue of other kinds is confined to 
the root, stem, veins of leaves, petals, and other 
parts composed of leaves. It is not found in 
bark. 

The common office of the tissue is to convey 
fluid or air, and to act as the receptacle of 
secretions. 

The cells of Cellular tissue convey fluids in 
all directions through their sides, and absorb 
with great rapidity; when placed in contact 
with cells of the same species they join together 
and adhere — as is exemplified in budding and 
grafting — the cells adhere, then form Woody 
fibre — but cells of different or widely related 
species will not form a junction. 

This is the operation of grafting or budding, 



10 GENERAL NATURE OF PLANTS. 

in which, however, the similar parts of the 
stock and scion must be brought into close con- 
tact, and kept so for some time, and this must 
be done during the growing season. 

Woody fibre conveys fluid in the direction 
of its length, gives stiffness and flexibility to the 
general system, and acts as a protection to spiral 
and other delicate vessels. 

Spiral vessels convey oxygenated air. 

Other vessels probably conduct fluid when 
young, and air when old. 

As the bodies of which all tissue is composed 
are perfectly simple, unbranched, and regular 
in figure, having, when elongated, their two 
extremities exactly alike, they are more or less 
capable of conveying gaseous matter or fluids 
in any direction ; and, consequently, a current 
may be reversed in them without inconven- 
ience : hence, inverted cuttings or stems will 
grow. 

All parts of plants are composed of tissue, 
whether they be soft, as pulp ; or hard, as the 
bony stone of a Peach. 

With regard to Horticultural operations, the 
parts of plants should be considered under the 
heads of Root, Stem, Leaf-buds, Leaves, Flow- 
ers, Stamens and Pistils, Fruit, and Seed. 



ROOT. 11 



Root. 



The Root is the part that strikes into the 
earth when a seed begins to grow, and which 
afterwards continues to lengthen beneath the 
soil. But some roots do not require the soil, 
and draw their nutriment from the atmosphere, 
as the Ivy, Air-Plants, &c, others live on the 
juices of trees, as the Misletoe, &c, they are 
called parasitical. 

It is distinguished from the stem by the 
absence of leaves in any state, of regular leaf- 
buds ; of evaporating pores, or stomata ; and 
of pith in Exogenous plants. 

Therefore, such underground bodies as those 
called Tuber of the Potato ; Bulb of the Onion ; 
and solid Bulb or Cormus of the Crocus, are 
not roots. 

The office of the root is to absorb food in a 
fluid or gaseous state ; and also to fix the plant 
in the soil, or to some firm support. 

The latter office is essential to the certain 
and regular performance of the former. 

It is not by their surface only that roots ab- 
sorb food; it is chiefly by their young and 
newly formed extremities, called Spongioles. 



12 ROOT. 

Hence the preservation of the spongioles in 
an uninjured state is essential to the removal of 
a plant from one place to another, and care 
should be taken to preserve even the smallest 
fibres of the roots uninjured. 

A Spongiole consists of veiy young vascular 
tissue, surrounded by very young cellular sub- 
stance. 

It is therefore one of the most delicate parts 
of plants, and the most easily injured. 

Hence whatever is known to produce any 
injurious action upon leaves or stems, such as 
certain gases and mineral or vegetable poisons, 
will produce a much more fatal effect upon the 
spongioles. 

These spongioles have no power of selecting 
their food, but will absorb whatever the earth 
or air may contain, which is sufficiently fluid 
to pass through the sides of their tissue. 

So that if the spongioles are developed in a 
soil which is of an unsuitable nature, as they 
will still continue to absorb, they cannot fail to 
introduce matter which will prove either in- 
jurious or fatal to life, according to its intensity. 

This may often explain why trees suddenly 
become unhealthy, without any external appa- 
rent cause 



ROOT. 13 

Plants have the power of replacing spongioles 
by the formation of new ones ; so that an in- 
dividual is not destroyed by their loss. 

But this power depends upon the coopera- 
tion of the atmosphere, and upon the special 
vital powers of the species. 

If the atmosphere is so humid as to hinder 
evaporation from the leaves, spongioles will 
have time to form anew ; but if the atmosphere 
is dry, the loss by evaporation will be so much 
greater than can be supplied by the injured 
roots, that the whole plant will be emptied of 
fluid before the new spongioles can form, and 
death will ensue. 

This is the key to the operations of trans- 
plantation and propagation by cuttings scions 
and buds. 

As roots arc destitue of leaf-buds, and as 
leaf-buds are essential to the multiplication of 
an individual, it should follow that roots can 
never be employed for the purpose of multipli- 
cation. 

Nevertheless, roots have, occasionally, the 
power of generating leaf-buds, which being 
latent, and not according to the usual operations 
of nature, are called adventitious; and when 
this is the case, they may be employed for the 
2 



14 ROOT. 

purpose of multiplication ; as those of Cydonia 
Japonica, &c. 

The cause of this power existing in some 
species, and not in others, is unknown. 

It is therefore a power that can never be 
calculated upon ; and whose existence is only 
to be discovered by accident. 

The immediate cause of the formation of 
roots is at present involved in obscurity, but the 
fact is well known that some plants when pro- 
pagating by cuttings produce roots with much 
more facility and in a shorter time than others. 

Darkness, moisture, and perfect rest, seem 
necessary for this purpose — as well as a down- 
ward circulation of the sap, which is effected 
by the action of the leaves on the upper part 
of the stem — nor can the roots exist by them- 
selves without the leaves to create the action 
of drawing up the juices they absorb — therefore 
a cutting without leaves will soon perish. 

Although roots are generated under gound, 
and sometimes at considerable depths, yet ac- 
cess to a certain quantity of atmospheric air 
appears indispensable to the healthy execution 
of their functions. This is constantly exem- 
plified in plants growing in the earth at the back 
of an ill-ventilated forcing house, where the 



ROOT. 15 

roots have no means of finding their way into 
the earth on the outside of the house. 

The spongioles and newly formed parts of 
the root contain considerable nitrogen, a sup- 
ply of this gas therefore seems necessary to 
their health. Manure which contains nitrogen 
in abundance must therefore be of consequence 
to them. It has lately been asserted that those 
seeds which contain most nitrogen vegetate the 
earliest. 

It is supposed by some that the introduction 
of oxygen into their system is as indispensable 
to them as to animals. 

It seems more probable that the oxygen of 
the atmosphere, combining with a certain quan- 
tity of carbon, forms carbonic acid, which they 
absorb and feed upon. 

It is at least certain that the exclusion of air 
from the roots will always induce an unhealthy 
condition, or even death itself. This may be 
one of the reasons why stiff, clayey, tenacious 
soils are so seldom suited to the purposes of the 
cultivator, until their adhesiveness has been 
destroyed by the addition, of other matter, such 
as sand or manure. 

After the juices have circulated through a 
plant and performed their destined offices, what 



16 ROOT. 

remains unfit for its further nourishment re- 
turns to the spongioles, is by them thrown off — 
this substance so thrown off is unsuitable and 
even poisonous to this species of plant, but is 
not so to other species ; it may even be suitable 
to them. 

Hence soil may be rendered impure, (or, as 
we inaccurately say, worn out) for one species, 
which will not be impure for others. 

This is the true key of the theory of rotation 
of crops. 

This also may serve to explain in part why 
light soil is indispensable to so many plants, 
and heavy or tenacious soil suitable to so few : 
for in the former case the spongioles will meet 
with little resistance to their elongation, and 
will consequently be continually quitting the 
place where their excrementitious matter is de- 
posited ; while, in the latter case, the reverse 
will occur. 

It will also be one of the reasons why an 
orchard planted too thickly of the same trees 
cannot thrive, the trees by their roots soon 
absorb all the nutriment from the earth, and 
only those on the borders can send out their 
roots to a distance for fresh juices, those in the 
centre have little else to feed on but the sub- 



ROOT. 17 

stance thus cast off by themselves and by the 
others around. And why young apple trees 
planted on the site of an old apple orchard 
cannot thrive, the earth is full of the poisonous 
matter thrown off by the roots of the old trees ; 
but probably young cherry or peach trees 
would succeed. Likewise it accounts for the 
natural rotation of trees which has been dis- 
covered to exist in the ancient forests of this 
part of the globe ; for the necessity of repot- 
ting plants grown in green-houses every one 
or two years, and for many other circumstances 
in horticulture for which hitherto sufficient 
reasons had not been given. 

Much of the healthy action of the root de- 
pends on the warmth and moisture of the soiL 
A late German writer, Mr. Writgen, has made it 
appear probable that much more depends on 
this than on the geological nature or chemical 
state of the soil, and when it is considered that 
the salts usually found in the earth are more 
readily soluble in a warm moisture than in a 
cold one, and also that heat is favorable to 
decomposition and the production of gases — it 
seems likely there is truth in this position. 

During the summer in the temperate parts of 
Europe, the earth at one and two feet depth is 
2* 



18 STEM. 

one to one and a half degrees higher in tem- 
perature than the atmosphere, but in tropical 
climates the earth is many degrees hotter. 
The system of applying bottom heat to accele- 
rate the junction of the parts of plants that have 
been grafted, budded, or inarched, is successful 
from its exciting the healthy and rapid action 
of the roots in absorbing juices and supplying 
them in abundance to the stock. 

The root is never entirely dormant except 
when frozen ; during the winter it is slowly col- 
lecting juices for the supply of the spring ; 
where the period of rest or winter is long, the 
store of juices is large, and vegetation in the 
spring is rapid and luxuriant. This accounts for 
the quick growth in northern climates where 
plants commence vegetation and mature their 
fruit in the short space of three months. 

Stem. 

The stem is that part of a plant which is 
developed above-ground, and which took an 
upward direction at the period of germination 
of the seed. 

It consists of a woody axis, covered by bark 
having pores on its surface, bearing leaves with 



STEM. 19 

leaf-buds in their axils, and producing flowers 
and fruit. 

The points where leaves are borne are called 
Nodi, knots ; the spaces between the leaves are 
Internodia, Internodes. 

The more erect a stem grows, the more 
vigorous it is; and the more it deviates from 
this direction to a horizontal or pendulous posi- 
tion, the less is it vigorous. 

Some stems are developed under ground, 
such as the Tubers of the Potato and the Cor- 
mus of the Crocus, but they are known from 
roots by the presence of leaves, and regular 
leaf-buds upon their surface, as the shoots from 
the eye of the potato. 

Stems increase in diameter in two ways. 

Either by the addition of new matter to the 
outside of the wood and the inside of the bark ; 
when they are Exogenous ; ex. Oak. 

Or by the addition of new matter to their in- 
side ; when they are Endogenous ; ex. Cane. 
Palm. 

In Exogenous stems, the central portion, 
which is harder and darker than that at the cir- 
cumference, is called Heart-wood; while the 
exterior, which is softer and lighter, is called 
Alburnum or Sap-wood. 



20 STEM. 

The inside of the bark of such stems has 
also the technical name of Liber. 

The Heart-wood was, when young, Albur- 
num, and afterwards changed its nature, by 
becoming the receptacle of certain secretions 
peculiar to the species. 

Hence the greater durability of Heart-wood 
than of Sap-wood. While the latter is newly 
formed empty tissue, almost as perishable as 
bark itself, the former is protected against de- 
struction by the introduction of secretions that 
become solid matter, which is often insoluble 
in water, and never permeable to air. 

The secretions by which Heart-wood is soli- 
dified are prepared in the leaves, whence they 
are sent downwards through the bark, and from 
the bark communicated to the central part of 
the stem. 

The channels through which this communi- 
cation takes place are called Medullary Rays, 
or Silver Grain. 

Medullary rays are plates of cellular tissue, 
in a very compressed state, passing from the 
pith into the bark. They are what form the 
cross grain of most of our ornamental woods. 

The wood itself is composed of tubes con- 
sisting of woody fibre and vascular tissue, im- 
bedded longitudinally in cellular substance. 



STEM. 21 

This cellular substance only developes hori- 
zontally ; and it is to it that the peculiar char- 
acter of different kinds of wood is chiefly due. 

For this reason the wood of the stock of a 
grafted plant will never become like that of its 
scion, although, as will be hereafter seen, the 
woody matter of the stock must all originate in 
the scion. 

The stem of an Exogenous plant may there- 
fore be compared to a piece of linen, of which 
the weft is composed of cellular tissue, and the 
warp of fibrous and vascular tissue. 

In the spring and autumn a viscid juice is 
secreted between the wood and the liber, called 
the Cambium. 

This Cambium appears to be the matter out 
of which the cellular horizontal substance of 
the stem is organised. 

In Endogenous stems, such as the Palm, the 
portion at the circumference is harder than that 
in the centre ; and there is no separable bark. 

Their stems consist of bundles of woody 
matter, imbedded in cellular tissue, and com- 
posed of vascular tissue surrounded by woody 
fibre. 

The stem is not only the depository of the 
peculiar secretions of species, but is also the 



22 LEAF-BITDS. 

medium through which the sap flows in its pas- 
sage from the roots into the leaves. 

In Exogenous stems it certainly rises through 
the alburnum, and descends through the bark. 

In Endogenous stems it probably rises 
through the bundles of wood, and descends 
through the cellular substance ; but this is un- 
certain. 

Stems have the power of propagating an 
individual only by means of their Leaf-buds. 
If destitute of Leaf-buds, they have no power 
of multiplication, except fortuitously. 



Leaf-buds. 

Leaf-buds are rudiments of branches, en- 
closed within scales, which are imperfectly 
formed leaves. 

All the leaf-buds upon the same branch are 
constitutionally and anatomically the same. 

They are of two kinds ; viz. regular or nor- 
7iial, and adventitious or latent. 

Regular leaf-buds are formed in the angle 
of the leaf and the stem, called the axil, at the 
origin of the leaf — all bodies growing in that 
angle, are called axillary. 



LEAF-BUDS. 23 

They are capable of propagating the indi- 
vidual from which they originate. 

They are at first nourished by the fluid lying 
in the pith, from which it is probable they take 
their rise, as may be seen in a cross slice of 
the pine made at a knot, or just at the axil, but 
they finally establish for themselves a commu- 
nication with the soil by the woody matter 
which they send downwards. 

Their force of development will be in pro- 
portion to their nourishment ; and, consequently, 
when it is wished to procure a young shoot of 
unusual vigor, all other shoots in the vicinity 
are prevented growing, so as to accumulate for 
one shoot only all the food that would other- 
wise have been consumed by several. 

Cutting back to a few eyes is an operation 
in pruning to produce the same effect, by 
directing the sap, as it ascends, into two or 
three buds only, instead of allowing it to ex- 
pend itself upon all the others which are cut 
away. 

It is better in many cases of flowering plants 
and fruits to rub off all buds but those wished 
to be left, before they become branches. 

When leaf-buds grow, they develope in three 
directions; the one horizontal, the other up- 
ward, and the third downward. 



24 LEAF-BUDS. 

The horizontal development is confined to 
the cellular system of the bark, pith, and me- 
dullary rays. 

The upward and downward developments 
are confined to the woody fibre and vascular 
tissue. 

In this respect they resemble seeds; from 
which they differ physiologically in propagating 
the individual, while seeds can only propagate 
the species. 

When they disjoin from the stem that bears 
them, they are called bulbs. 

In some plants, a bud, when separated from 
its stem, will grow and form a new plant, if 
placed in circumstances favorable to the pre- 
servation of its vital powers. 

But this property seems confined to plants 
having a firm, woody, perennial stem. 

Such buds, when detached from their parent 
stem, send roots downwards and a stem up- 
wards. 

But if the buds are not separated from the 
plant to which they belong, the matter they 
send downwards becomes wood and liber, and 
the stems they send upwards become branches. 
Hence it is said that wood and liber are formed 
by the roots of leaf-buds. 



LEAF-BUDS. 25 

If no leaf-buds are called into action, there 
will be no addition of wood : and, consequently, 
the destruction or absence of leaf-buds is ac- 
companied by the absence of wood; as is 
proved by a shoot, the upper buds of which 
are destroyed and the lower allowed to devel- 
ope. The lower part of the shoot will increase 
in diameter ; the upper will remain of its origi- 
nal dimensions. 

The quantity of wood, therefore, depends 
upon the quantity of leaf-buds that develope. 

It is of the greatest importance to bear this 
in mind in pruning timber trees ; for excessive 
pruning must necessarily be injurious to the 
quantity of produce. 

If a cutting with a leaf-bud on it be placed 
in circumstances fitted to the development of 
the latter, it will grow and become a new 
plant. 

If this happens when the cutting is inserted 
in the earth, the new plant is said by gardeners 
to be upon its own bottom. 

But if it happens when the cutting is applied 
to the dissevered end of another individual, 
called a stock, the roots are insinuated into the 
tissue of the stock, and a plant is said to be 
grafted ; the cutting being called a scion. 
3 



26 LEAF-BUDS. 

There is, therefore, little difference between 
cuttings and scions, except that the former root 
into the earth, the latter into another plant. 

But if a cutting of the same plant without a 
leaf-bud upon it be placed in the same circum- 
stances, it will not grow, but will die. 

Unless its vital powers are sufficient to enable 
it to develope an adventitious leaf-bud. 

A leaf-bud separated from the stem will also 
become a new individual, if its vital energy is 
sufficiently powerful. 

And this, whether it is planted in earth, into 
which it roots, like a cutting, or in a new in- 
dividual to which it adheres and grows like a 
scion. In the former case it is called an eye, 
in the latter a bud. 

Every leaf-bud has, therefore, its own dis- 
tinct system of life, and of growth. 

And as all the leaf-buds of an individual are 
exactly alike, it follows that a plant is a collec- 
tion of a great number of distinct identical 
systems of life, and consequently a compound 
individual. 

Regular leaf-buds being generated in the 
axils of the leaves, it is there that they are 
always to be sought. 

And if they cannot be discovered by ocular 



LEAF-BUDS. 27 

inspection, it may nevertheless be always in- 
ferred with confidence that they exist in such 
situations, and may possibly be called from 
their dormant state into life. 

Hence, wherever the scar of a leaf, or the 
remains of a leaf, can be discovered, there it is 
to be understood that the rudiments exist of a 
system of life which may be, by favorable cir- 
cumstances, called into action. 

Hence, all parts upon which leaves have ever 
grown may be made use of for purposes of pro- 
pagation. 

From these considerations it appears that 
the most direct analogy between the Animal 
and Vegetable Kingdoms is with the Polypes 
of the former. 

Adventitious leaf-buds are in all respects like 
regular leaf-buds, except that they are not 
formed at the axils of leaves, but develope 
occasionally from all and any parts of a plant. 

They are occasionally produced by roots, by 
solid wood, or even by leaves and flowers. 

Hence, roots solid wood, or even leaves and 
flowers may in particular cases be used as 
means of propagation. 

But as the development of adventitious buds 
is extremely uncertain, such means of propaga- 



28 LEAF-BUDS. 

tion can never be calculated on ; and form no 
part of the science of cultivation. 

The cause of the formation of adventitious 
leaf-buds is unknown. 

From certain experiments it appears that 
they may be generated by sap in a state of 
great accumulation and activity. 

Consequently, whatever tends to the accu- 
mulation of sap in an active state may be 
expected to be conducive to the formation of 
adventitious leaf-buds. 

When a hard woody plant is cut down after 
transplantation, adventitious leaf-buds will start 
from all parts of the stem. They originate and 
arc pushed out from the centre, and are caused 
by the accumulated sap. 

The leaf-bud and the flower-bud are the 
same in the earliest stage of their organization, 
but soon after, the change takes place which is 
visible in most fruit trees as soon as the sap 
begins to flow. 

The determination of these buds to leaf or 
blossom-buds, no doubt depends on the quantity 
and quality of the sap stored up during the 
winter. When excessive vigor is produced in 
trees, it is favorable to the production of leaf- 
buds, and consequently of wood. On the con- 



LEAVES. 29 

trary, when rapid and vigorous vegetation is 
checked, blossom-buds, and consequently, fruit 
will be in abundance — thus, fruit is seldom 
borne on the thick vigorous shoots of the 
peach, &c, but generally on the slender ones. 

If an unproductive tree is transplanted, it often 
becomes productive from the check given. 

In India and China, trees are brought to bear 
fruit by cutting the roots or exposing them to 
dryness. 

Leaves. 

Leaves are expansions of bark, traversed by 
veins. 

The veins consist of spiral vessels enclosed 
in woody fibre ; they originate in the medullary 
sheath and liber; and they are connected by 
loose cellular tissue which is full of cavities 
containing air. 

This cellular tissue consists of two layers, of 
which the upper is composed of small cells 
perpendicular to the outer skin, and the lower 
of small cells parallel with the outer skin. 

These small cells are arranged so as to 
leave numerous open passages among them 
for the circulation of air in the inside of a 
3* 



30 LEAVES. 

leaf. Cellular tissue of this nature is called 
cavernous. 

The skin covering the leaf called cuticle, is 
formed of one or more layers of depressed 
cellular tissue, which is generally hardened, 
and always diy and filled with air. 

Between many of the cells of the cuticle are 
placed apertures or pores called stomata, which 
have the power of opening and closing as cir- 
cumstances may require. 

It is by means of this apparatus that leaves 
prepare the sap which they absorb from the 
alburnum, or new wood, converting it into the 
secretions peculiar to the species. 

Their cavernous structure enables them to 
expose the greatest possible surface of their 
cellular tissue to the action of the atmosphere. 

Their cuticle is a non-conducting skin, which 
protects them from great variations in tempera- 
ture, and through which gaseous matter will pass 
readily. 

Their stomata are pores that are chiefly in- 
tended to facilitate evaporation ; for which they 
are well adapted by the power they possess of 
opening or closing as circumstances may re- 
quire. 

They are also intended for facilitating the 



LEAVES. 31 

rapid emission of air, when it is necessary that 
such a function should be performed. 

The action and functions of stomata being 
of such vital importance, it is absolutely neces- 
sary to the health of a plant that they be not 
choked up with dust or dirt or injured by in- 
sects, the cleaner therefore the leaves of a plant 
are kept the more it will flourish. 

Leaves growing in air are covered with a 
cuticle. 

Leaves growing under water have no cuticle. 

All the secretions of plants being formed in 
the leaves, or at least the greater part, it fol- 
lows that secretions cannot take place if leaves 
are destroyed. 

And as this secreting property depends upon 
specific vital powers connected with the decom- 
position of carbonic acid, and called into action 
only when the leaves are freely exposed to 
light and air, it also follows that the quantity 
of secretion will be in direct proportion to the 
quantity of leaves, and to their free exposure 
to light and air. 

The leaf therefore is a beautiful contrivance 
for exposing a large surface of crude sap to the 
influence of the external air and solar light, by 
the operation of which it is rendered capable 



32 LEAVES. 

of being converted into the different substances 
required for the growth of the plant and the 
production of its fruit and seed. 

The light of the sun striking on a leaf causes 

1. Decomposition of carbonic acid, by which 
carbon in different vegetable forms enters into 
the composition chiefly of the solid parts of the 
plant — this is in proportion to the intensity of 
the light to which it is exposed ; hence, plants 
grown in the shade are weak, and vice versa. 

2. Extrication of nitrogen. 

3. Insensible perspiration or evaporation; 
hence this does not take place during the 
night 

The health of plants depends much on the 
proper adjustment between the quantity of 
juices taken up by the roots, and the perspira- 
tion of the leaves. If they are exposed to too 
much solar light, the perspiration is greater 
than the roots can supply, and the leaves flag : 
when transplanted, if watered in the evening, 
the roots become supplied with moisture and 
juices, the perspiration ceasing daring the night, 
this action recovers its equilibrium, and the 
leaves are seen erect in the morning. 

The quantity of light or shade which can be 
borne by a plant, depends on the number, form 



LEAVES. 33 

and action of the stomata, and as these vary 
considerably in different plants, it is evident 
that some are created to prefer shade, others to 
prefer light. 

In this climate where the atmosphere is so 
pure and free from mist and vapor, where solar 
light is so intense during the summer, attention 
to these principles is peculiarly requisite. On 
this subject, more will be found under the con- 
siderations of light, air, perspiration, and trans- 
plantation. 

The usual position of leaves is spiral, at 
regularly increasing or diminishing distances ; 
they are then said to be alternate. 

But if the space of the stem called the axis, 
that separates two leaves, is reduced to nothing 
at alternate intervals, they become opposite. 

And if the spaces that separate several leaves 
be reduced to nothing, they become vcrticillate 
or whorled. 

Opposite and vcrticillate leaves, therefore, 
differ from alternate leaves only in the spaces 
that separate them being reduced to nothing. 



34 FLOWERS. 



Flowers. 

Flowers consist of two principal parts, the 
interior or those destined to form and perfect 
the seed, called Stamens and Pistils, and the 
exterior or those destined to envelope, protect 
and ornament the former, called Floral En- 
velopes. 

Of these, the latter constitute what is popular- 
ly considered the flower ; although the former 
are the only parts that are absolutely essential 
to it. 

Some flowers have only one envelope, some 
none, as the willow. 

However different they may be in appear- 
ance from leaves, they are all formed of those 
organs in a more or less modified state, and 
altered in a greater or less degree by mutual 
adhesion. 

The Floral Envelopes consist of two or more 
series called whorls of transformed leaves ; of 
which part is calyx, its leaves being called 
sepals, and part corolla, its leaves being called 
petals. 

The stamens and pistils arc also transformed 
leaves. 



FLOWERS. 35 

The calyx is always the outermost, the 
corolla is always the innermost whorl ; and if 
there is but one floral envelope, that one is 
called calyx. 

Usually the calyx is green, and the corolla 
colored and more highly developed ; but the 
reverse is frequently the case, as in Fuchsia, 
Ribes sanguineum, &c. 

A Flower being, then, an axis, or stem sur- 
rounded by leaves, it is in reality a stunted 
branch ; that is, one the growth of which is 
checked, and its power of elongation destroyed. 

That flowers are stunted branches is proved, 
firstly, by all their parts, especially the most 
external, occasionally reverting to the state of 
ordinary leaves ; secondly, by their parts being 
often transformed into each other ; and, thirdly, 
by the whorls of flower-buds being dislocated 
and actually converted into branches when- 
ever any thing occurs to stimulate them exces- 
sively. 

Their most essential distinctive character 
consists in the buds at the axils of their leaves 
being usually dormant, while those in the axils 
of ordinary leaves are usually active. 

But an extraordinary case is recorded by Mr. 
Knight of potatoes growing in the angles (axils) 
of the sepals and of the petals of the flower. 



36 FLOWERS. 

For this reason while leaf-buds can be used 
for the purpose of propagation, flower-buds 
cannot usually be so employed. ■ 

Being stunted branches, their position on the 
stem is the same as that of developed branches. 

And as there is in all plants a very great 
difference in the development of leaf-buds, 
some growing readily into branches, others 
only unfolding their leaves without elongating, 
and many remaining altogether dormant, it 
follows that flower-buds may form upon plants 
of whatever age and in whatever state. 

But to produce a general formation of flow- 
er-buds it is necessary that there should be 
some general predisposing constitutional cause 
independent of accidental circumstances. 

This predisposing cause is the accumulation 
of sap and of secreted matter, as has been be- 
fore explained. 

Therefore whatever tends to retard the free 
flow of sap, and causes it to accumulate, will 
cause the production of flower-buds, or fertility. 

And on the other hand, whatever tends to 
produce excessive vigor causes the rapid mo- 
tion and dispersion of sap, or prevents its elab- 
oration and causes sterility or want of flower- 
buds. 



FLOWERS. 37 

Transplantation with a partial destruction of 
roots, age, or high temperature accompanied 
by a dry atmosphere, training obliquely or in 
an inverted direction, a constant destruction of 
the extremities of young growing branches, will 
all cause an accumulation of sap, and secre- 
tions ; and consequently all such circumstances 
are favorable to the production of flower-buds. 

But a richly manured soil, high temperature, 
with great atmospheric humidity , or an uninter- 
rupted flow of sap, are all causes of excessive 
vigor, and are consequently unfavorable to the 
production of flowcr-bu<ls. 

There is a tendency in many flowers to en- 
large* to alter their colors, or to change their 
appearance by a transformation and multiplica- 
tion of their parts, whenever they have been 
raised from seeds for several generations, or 
domesticated. 

The causes of this tendency are probably 
various, but being entirely unknown, no cer- 
tain rules for the production of varieties in 
flowers can be laid down, except by the aid of 
hybridising. 

It often happens that a single branch pro- 
duces flowers different from those produced on 
4 



38 FLOWERS. 

other branches. This is technically called a 
sport. 

As every bud on that branch has the same 
specific vital principle, a bud taken from such a 
branch will produce an individual, the whole of 
whose branches will retain the character of the 
sport. 

Consequently, buds by accidental variety 
may be made permanent, if the plant that 
sports be of a firm woody nature. 

As flowers feed upon the prepared sap in 
their vicinity, the greater the abundance of this 
prepared food, the more perfect will be their 
developm< nt. 

Or the fewer the flowers on a given branch 
the more food they will severally have to 
nourish them, and the more perfect will they 
be. 

The beauty of flowers will therefore be in- 
creased either by an abundant supply of food, 
or by a diminution of their numbers (thinning), 
or by both. The business of the primer is to 
cause these by his operations. 

The beauty of Flowers depends upon their 
free exposure to light and air, because it con- 
sists in the richness of their colors, and their 
colors are only formed by the action of those 
two agents. 



FLOWERS. 



39 



Hence, Flowers produced in dark or shady 
confined situations are either imperfect, or des- 
titute of their habitual size and beauty. 

Double Flowers are those in which the sta- 
mens are transformed into petals ; or in which 
the latter, or the sepals, are multiplied. They 
should not be confounded with Proliferous and 
Discoid Compound Flowers. This difference 
will be explained immediately. 

Although no certain rules for the production 
of double flowers can be laid down, yet it is 
probable that those flowers have the greatest 
tendency to become double, in which the parts 
are habitually multiplied. 

Plants whose flowers have naturally nume- 
rous stamens and pistils, are those which 
usually become double, these being the parts 
generally transformed into petals. 

Double Flowers arc therefore least to be ex- 
pected in plants with fewest stamens. 

Whenever the parts of a Flower adhere by 
their edges, forming what are called one sepal- 
led (gamosepalous) calyxes or one petaled 
(gamopctalous) corollas, or where the stamens 
are combined either into one or few parcels, the 
tendency to multiplication seems checked, but 
this is by no means general, as we have double 



40 FLOWERS. 

Campanula which is one petaled and double 
Hibiscus and Camellia where the stamens are 
combined. 

Proliferous Flowers are those in which parts 
that usually have all their axillary buds dor- 
mant, accidently develope such buds ; as in 
certain Roses, in which a branch grows up 
from the centre of a rose, or as it is technically 
said the carpellary leaves develope leaf-buds 
in their axils, so that the flower becomes a 
branch, the lower leaves of which are colored 
and transformed, and the upper green, and in 
their ordinary state. 

Discoid compound Flowers are those in which 
the central florets of a flower-head acquire 
corollas, like those of the circumference, one 
side strap shaped, as in the Dahlia; the culti- 
vated varieties of which should be called discoid, 
and not double. 

These two last are so essentially different 
from double flowers, that whatever laws may 
be supposed to govern the production or ameli- 
oration of double Flowers, can have no relation 
to proliferous or discoid compound Flowers. 



STAMENS AND PISTILS. 41 



Stamens and Pistils. 

The Stamens and Pistils are known to be 
modifications of leaves, because they very fre- 
quently are transformed into petals which are 
demonstrably such ; and because they occa- 
sionally revert to the state of leaves. In the 
double poppy the stamens change into petals, 
in the double anemone and ranunculus the 
pistils undergo the same transformation. 

The stamens bear at their summits an organ, 
called the anther, which contains a powder 
called pollen. 

When the anther is full grown it opens and 
ejects the pollen, either dispersing it in the 
air in consequence of the elasticity with which 
it opens ; or depositing it upon the summit of 
the pistil called stigma ; or exposing it to the 
action of wind, or such other disturbing causes 
as may liberate it from its case. 

The pollen consists of exceedingly minute 
hollow balls, or cases, containing myriads of 
particles called granules, which are the fer- 
tilising principle of the stamens. 

The pistil has at its base one or more 
cavities or cells called in a ripe state seed ves- 
4* 



42 STAMENS AND PISTILS. 

sels, in which bodies called ovula are placed ; 
and at its summit one or more secreting sur- 
faces called stigmata. 

The ovula are the rudiments of seeds. 

If the fertilising powder of the pollen come 
in contact with the stigma, the ovula in the 
cells of the pistil are vivified, and become 
seeds. 

Late microscopic discoveries render it al- 
most certain that the granules of pollen arc the 
true seeds deposited in the ovula by means of 
tubes or elongations of the skin of the hollow 
balls of pollen — there partly developed and se- 
cured by various coverings called integuments, 
until the proper period and circumstances arise 
for their farther growth in the earth — and that 
the present idea of vivification by pollen and the 
sexes of plants is cither not correct or not pro- 
perly understood. 

In wild plants a stigma is usually acted upon 
only by the pollen of the stamens which belong 
to it. 

In this case the seeds thus vivified will, when 
sown, produce new individuals, differing very 
little from that by which they were themselves 
produced. 

And, therefore, wild plants nre for the most 



STAMENS AND PISTILS. 43 

part multiplied from generation to generation 
without change. 

But it is possible to cause deviations from 
this law, by artificial means. 

If the pollen of one species is placed upon 
the stigma of another species, the ovula will be 
vivified ; and what is called a hybrid plant will 
be produced by those ovula when they shall 
have grown to be seeds. 

Hybrid plants are different from both their 
parents, and are generally intermediate in cha- 
racter between them. 

Reasoning from analogy it was formerly 
thought that hybrids were sterile and could not 
perfect seeds, experience however teaches that 
this is not the case ; but in woody and other 
plants where hybridisation has produced fine 
varieties either of fruit or flowers, these varieties 
are usually propagated by buds, cuttings, and 
scions. 

The power of hybridisation will probably 
when experience shall have matured and 
science arranged more numerous results, be- 
come the most correct test of botanical divi- 
sions into genera. Great care is requisite in 
making experiments on hybridisation to cut out 
the anthers of one of the plants experimented 



44 STAMENS AND PISTILS. 

on previous to their bursting, to apply the 
pollen of the other when in perfection, and 
to place the plant where none others of the 
genus are in the vicinity. 

The tropical warmth of the sun in this coun- 
try, is very favorable for maturing the pollen 
of all plants, particularly those from tropical 
regions, thus facilitating such experiments. 

It usually happens that the hybrid has the 
constitution and general aspect of the pollinife- 
rous parent ; but is influenced in secondary 
characters by the peculiarity of the female 
parent. See more on this subject under article 
Fruit. 

This should always be borne in mind in pro- 
curing new hybrid plants. 

Really hybrid plants must not be confounded 
with such as are spurious, in consequence of 
their origin being between two varieties of the 
same species, and not two species of the same 
genus. 

Hybrid plants, are often more abundant flow- 
erers than either parent. 

This is, probably, connected with constitu- 
tional debility. 



FRUIT. 



Fruit. 



45 



Fruit, strictly speaking, is the pistil arrived at 
maturity. 

When the calyx adheres to the pistil and 
grows with it to maturity, the fruit is called 
inferior ; as tho Apple. 

But when tho pistil alone ripens, there 
being no adhesion to it on the part of the 
calyx, the fruit is called superior; as the 
Peach. 

Tho fruit is, therefore, in common language, 
the flower, or some part of it, arrived at its 
most complete state of existence ; and, con- 
sequently, is itself a portion of a stunted 
branch. 

The nature of its connection with the stem 
is therefore the same as that of the branches 
with each other, or of leaves with their stem. 

A superior Fruit consisting only of one, or 
of a small number of transformed leaves, it 
has little or no power of forming a communi- 
cation with the earth and of feeding itself, as 
real branches have. 

It has also very little adhesion to its branch ; 
so that but slight causes are sufficient to detach 



46 FRUIT. 

it from the plant, especially at an early age, 
when all its parts are tender. 

Hence the difficulty of causing Peaches and 
the like to stone, or to pass over that age, in 
which the vascular bundles that join them to 
the branch become woody, and secure them to 
their place. 

For the same reason they are fed almost 
entirely by other parts, upon secreted matter 
which they attract to themselves, elaborate, 
and store up in the cavities of their tissue. 

The office of feeding such fruit is performed 
by young branches, which transmit nutriment 
to it through the bark. 

But as young branches can only transmit 
nutriment downwards, it follows that unless a 
fruit is formed on a part of a branch below a 
leaf-bud, it must perish. 

Unless there is some active vegetation in the 
stem above the branch on which it grows; 
when it may possibly live and feed upon secre- 
tions attracted by it from the main stem ; thus 
in pruning the peach and other trees with supe- 
rior fruit in the spring it is always necessary to 
leave one or two leaf-buds above the flower-bud. 

But inferior fruit, consisting always of the 
calyx in addition to the pistil, has a much 



FRUIT. 47 

more powerful communication with the branch ; 
each division of its calyx having at least one 
bundle of vascular and fibrous tissue, passing 
from it into the branch, and acting as a stay 
upon the centre to prevent its breaking off. 

Such fruit may be supposed much more 
capable of establishing a means of attracting 
secretions from a distance ; and, consequently, 
is less liable to perish from want of a supply of 
food. 

It is therefore not so important that an infe- 
rior fruit should be furnished with growing 
branches above it, instance, Apple, Pear. 

Fruit is exclusively fed by the secretions 
prepared for it by other parts ; it is therefore 
affected by nearly the same circumstances as 
flowers. 

It will be large in proportion to the quantity 
of food the stem can supply to it : and small 
in proportion to the inability of the stem to 
nourish it. 

For this reason, when trees are weak they 
should be allowed to bear very little, if any 
fruit ; because a crop of fruit can only tend to 
increase their debility. 

And in all cases each fruit should be so far 
separated from all others as not to be robbed of 
its food by those in its vicinity. 



48 FRUIT. 

We find that nature has herself in some 
measure provided against injury to plants by 
excessive fecundity, in giving them a power of 
throwing off flowers, the fruit of which cannot 
be supported. 

The flavor of fruit depends upon the exist- 
ence of certain secretions, especially of acid 
and sugar ; flavor will, consequently, be regu- 
lated by the circumstances under which fruit is 
ripened. 

The ripening of fruit is the conversion of 
acid and other substances into sugar. 

As the latter substance cannot be obtained at 
all in the dark, is less abundant in fruit ripened 
in dilfused light, and most abundant in fruit ex- 
posed to the direct rays of the sun, the conver- 
sion of matter into sugar occurs under the same 
circumstances as the decomposition of carbonic 
acid. 

Therefore, if fruit be produced in situations 
much exposed to the sun, its sweetness will be 
augmented. 

And in proportion as it is deprived of the 
sun's direct rays that quality will diminish. 

Fruit produced under circumstances of great 
moisture and diminution of solar light, as in 
seasons of continued rain where the sky is 



FRUIT. 49 

much clouded, will be larger, but the flavor 
will be less sweet and agreeable — this is often 
the case with the large strawberries. 

So that a fruit which when exposed to the 
sun is sweet, when grown where no direct 
light will reach it will be acid ; as Pears, 
Cherries, &c. 

Hence acidity may be corrected by exposure 
to light ; and excessive sweetness, or insipidity, 
by removal from light. 

Judicious pruning, therefore, so as to admit 
all the possible light and air to the fruit, is ad- 
vantageous, but care must be taken that it be 
not pursued to the injury of the plant. 

It is the property of succulent fruits which 
are acid when wild to acquire sweetness when 
cultivated, losing a part of their acid. 

This probably arises from the augmentation 
of the cellular tissue, which possibly has a 
greater power than woody or vascular tissue 
of assisting in the formation of sugar. 

As a certain quantity of acid is essential to 
render fruit agreeable to the palate, and as it is 
the property of cultivated fruits to add to their 
saccharine matter, but not to form more acid 
than when wild, it follows that, in selecting wild 
fruits for domestication, those which are acid 
5 



50 FRUIT. 

should be preferred, and those which are sweet 
or insipid rejected. 

Unless recourse is had to hybridism ; when 
a wild insipid fruit may be possibly improved, 
or may be the means of improving something 
else. 

It is very much upon such considerations as 
the foregoing that the rules of training must de- 
pend. 

The effect of removing a ring of bark from 
the fruit-bearing branch, is to increase con- 
siderably the size of the fruit above the ring, 
by retaining the juices of the wood which are 
prevented from returning, the communication 
being cut off. But if the ring is too wide or 
the branch on which it is practised too small, a 
morbid state of early maturity is produced, and 
the fruit is worthless. The breadth of the ring 
should be in proportion to the thickness of the 
branch, and in fruit-bearing trees should be 
performed as soon as the flowers are apparent 
in the spring. 

Hybridisation has been had recourse to with 
much success to improve fruits, but although 
the results have been thus good, sufficient care 
has not been taken to note down the detail of 
the experiments so as to arrive at any fixed 



SEED. 



51 



laws capable of affording unerring rules of 
action. 

Mr. Knight says he had observed gene- 
rally a strong prevalence of the constitution and 
habits of the plant whose pistil was fertilized by 
the pollen of another. Mr. Herbert, in discuss- 
ing a hybrid ( Ytisus, thinks that the plant with 
the pistil influences the leaf, and that with the 
pollen the flower and fruit. This gentleman in 
his work on Amaryllidacea?, has given a most 
interesting and detailed account of many years 
experience on Hybridisation. 

The experience of Van Mons in raising new 
varieties of fruit trees from seed, has been emi- 
nently valuable and successful, and no doubt 
would throw light on this subject. 

Seed. 

The seed is the ovulum arrived at perfection. 

It consists of various coverings enclosing an 
embryo, being the granule of pollen deposited 
there, which is the rudiment of a future plant. 

The seed is nourished by the same means as 
the fruit ; and, like it, will be more or less per- 
fectly formed, according to the abundance of 
its nutriment. 



52 SEED. 

The plant developed from the embryo in the 
seed, will be in all essential particulars like its 
parent species. 

Unless its nature has been changed by hy- 
bridising. 

But although it will certainly, under ordinary 
circumstances, reproduce its species, it will by 
no means uniformly reproduce the particular 
variety by which it was borne. 

So that seeds are not the proper means of 
propagating varieties. 

Nevertheless, in annual or biennial plants, no 
means can be employed for propagating a 
variety, except the seeds; and yet the variety 
is preserved. 

This is accomplished solely by the great care 
of the cultivator, and happens thus. 

Although a seed will not absolutely propa- 
gate the individual, yet as a seed will partake 
more of the nature of its actual parent than of 
any thing else, its progeny may be expected, 
as really happens, to resemble the variety from 
which it sprung, more than any other variety 
of its species. 

Provided its purity have not been contami- 
nated by the intermixture of other varieties. 

By a careful eradication of all the varieties 



SEED. 53 

from the neighborhood of that from which seed 
is to be saved, by taking care that none but the 
most genuine forms of a variety are preserved 
as seed-plants ; and by compelling by trans- 
plantation a plan* to expend all its accumulated 
sap in the nourishment of its seeds, instead of 
in the superabundant production of foliage, a 
crop of seed may be procured, the plants pro- 
duced by which will, in a great measure, have 
the peculiar properties of the parent variety. 

By a series of progressive seed-savings upon 
the same plan, plants will be at length obtained, 
in which the habits of the individual have be- 
come as it were fixed, and capable of such 
exact reproduction by seed, so as to form an ex- 
ception to the general rule ; as in Turnips, 
Radishes, &c; 

But if the least neglect occurs in taking the 
necessary precautions to ensure a uniform crop 
of seed, possessing the new fixed properties, 
the race becomes deteriorated, in proportion to 
the want of care that has occurred, and loses 
its characters of individuality. 

In all varieties those seeds may be expected 

to preserve their individual characters most 

distinctly which have been the best nourished ; 

it is, consequently, those which should be se- 

5* 



54 SEED. 

lected in preference for raising new plants, 
from which seed is to be saved. 

When plants have been propagated for a 
series of years by suckers alone, which are ad- 
ventitious buds arising from the root, their power 
of producing seed seems somewhat impaired, 
this is the case with many herbaceous plants 
and bulbs, but if a single seed be found by 
which to raise a new plant, the faculty of bear- 
ing seed becomes renewed. 

When seeds are first ripened, their embryo 
is a mass of cellular substance, containing 
starch, fixed carbon, or other solid matter in 
its cavities; and in this state it will remain 
until fitting circumstances occur to call it into 
active life. 

These fitting circumstances arc, a tempera- 
ture above freezing point, a moist medium, 
(earth) darkness, and exposure to air. 

It then absorbs the moisture of the medium 
in which it lies, decomposes water from which it 
inhales oxygen, and undergoes certain chemical 
changes ; its vital powers cause one extremity 
of it to ascend for the purpose of finding light, of 
decomposing its carbonic acid, by parting with 
its accumulated oxygen, and forming leaves and 
branches, and the other extremity to descend for 



SEED. 55 

the purpose of finding a constant supply of crude 
nutriment and becoming roots. 

Unless these conditions are maintained, seeds 
cannot germinate ; and, consequently, an ex- 
posure to light is fatal to their embryo, because 
oxygen will not be absorbed in sufficient quan- 
tity to stimulate the vital powers of the embryo 
into action, for the purpose of parting with it 
again, by the decomposition of the carbonic 
acid that has been formed during its accumu- 
lation. 

The length of time which seeds preserve 
their power of growing, or vitality as it is call- 
ed, differs in different plants. Some lose their 
vitality in a single year, others preserve it for 
many years — the best authenticated account 
of this latter power is of some raspberry trees 
now growing in the garden of the Horticultural 
Society of London, which were raised from 
seeds taken out of the stomach of a skeleton 
found in one of the tumuli or ancient tombs at 
Dorchester England, thirty feet below the sur- 
face. With the skeleton were found some coins 
of the Emperor Hadrian — so that they must 
have been sixteen or seventeen hundred years 
old. The raspberry has also vegetated from 
seeds taken from raspberry jam, in this case 



56 SEED. 

they must have borne the heat of cooking for a 
length of time. This plant, as is well known, 
is a native of the colder parts of this continent ; 
the integuments or coverings of the seed must 
therefore have been formed with wonderful 
powers of protection against extremes of heat, 
cold, and age. 

Pine seeds and many others vegetate very 
rapidly in lime just slacked. This action produ- 
ces warmth, and the lime immediately attracts 
the excess of carbonic acid from the seed, this, 
as before observed, being one of the chief con- 
ditions of vegetating. 

The business of saving seed for gardens as 
a trade, is quite new in this country, and many 
hundred dollars are annually expended in im- 
porting seeds from Europe. The vitality of 
some is injured by the voyage. 

It will be seen by the foregoing information 
that it would be useless to compete with Euro- 
pean seedsmen, unless this branch were follow- 
ed as a business, so much attention, so many 
precautions are requisite to procure true, full, 
and plump seeds of vegetables or flowers. But 
it is equally certain if this attention were paid so 
as to ensure an infallible character after proper 
trials to the seeds grown, that the alpine purity 



sap. 57 

of the atmosphere, the quantity and intensity 
of solar light, by ripening all the juices, and 
particularly the pollen of plants, would enable 
the seed-growers of this country to excel by far 
those of Europe. 

But unless done thoroughly, it is no use to 
make the attempt, as a grower once disap- 
pointed in the quality of his seed will scarcely 
ever try the same source again. 



Sap. 

The fluid matter which is absorbed cither 
from the earth or from the air is called sap. 

When it first enters a plant it consists of 
water holding certain principles, especially 
carbonic acid, in solution. 

These principles chiefly consist of animal or 
vegetable matter in a state of decomposition, 
and salts, and are energetic in proportion to 
their solubility, or tendency to form carbonic 
acid by combining with the oxygen of the air. 

Sap soon afterwards acquires the nature of 
mucilage or sugar, and subsequently becomes 
still further altered by the admixture of such 
soluble matter as it receives in passing in its 



58 sap. 

route through the alburnum or newly formed 
woody tissue. 

When it reaches the vicinity of the leaves it 
is attracted into them, and there, having been 
exposed to light and air, is converted into the 
secretions peculiar to the species. 

It finally, in its altered state, sinks down the 
bark, whence it is given off laterally by the 
medullary rays, and is distributed through the 
system. 

The cause of the motion of the sap is the at- 
traction of the leaf-buds and leaves. 

The leaf-buds, called into growth by the 
combined action of the increasing temperature 
and light of spring, decompose their carbonic 
acid, and attract fluid from the tissue imme- 
diately below them ; the space so caused is 
filled up by fluid again attracted from below, 
and thus a motion gradually takes place in the 
sap from one extremity to the other. 

Consequently the motion of the sap takes 
place first in the branches and last in the 
roots. 

For this reason a branch of a plant sub- 
jected to a high temperature in winter will 
grow while its stem is exposed to a very low 
temperature. 



sap. 59 

But growth under such circumstances will 
not be long maintained, unless the roots are 
secured from the reach of frost : for, if frozen 
they cannot act, and will, consequently, be un- 
able to replace the sap of which the stem is 
emptied by the attraction of the buds converted 
into branches, and by the perspiration of the 
leaves. 

Whatever tends to condense the sap, such 
as a dry and heated atmosphere, or an inter- 
ruption of its rapid flow, or a great decomposi- 
tion of carbonic acid by full exposure to light, 
has the property of causing excessive vigor 
to be diminished, and flower-buds to be pro- 
duced. 

While, on the other hand, whatever tends to 
dilute the sap, such as the free and rapid circu- 
lation of it, a damp atmosphere, or a great ac- 
cumulation of oxygen in consequence of the 
imperfect decomposition of carbonic acid, has 
the property of causing excessively rapid 
growth, and an exclusive production of leaf- 
buds. 

Condensed or accumulated sap is, therefore, 
a great cause of fertility. 

And thin fluid, not being elaborated, is a 
great cause of sterility. 



60 AIR AND LIGHT. 

The conversion of sap into different kinds 
of secretion is effected by the combined action 
of Air, Light, and Temperature. 

Mr. Knight is of opinion, founded like all his 
opinions, on well conducted experiments, that 
the motion given to plants by the wind, enables 
their fluids to circulate more freely and is thus 
beneficial. 

Air and Light. 

When an embryo plant is formed within its 
integuments, it is usually colorless, or nearly 
so ; but, as soon as it begins to grow, that part 
which approaches the light (the stem) becomes 
colored, while the opposite extremity (the root) 
remains colorless. 

The parts exposed to the air absorb oxygen 
at night, absorb carbonic acid and part with 
oxygen again in daylight ; and thus in the day- 
time purify the air, and render it fit for the re- 
spiration of man. 

The intensity of this latter operation is in 
proportion to the intensity of solar light to 
which leaves are directly exposed. 

Its cause is the decomposition of carbonic 
acid, the extrication of oxygen, and the acquisi- 



AIR AND LIGHT. 61 

tion by the plant of carbon in a solid state ; 
from which, modified by the peculiar vital 
actions of species, color and secretions are sup- 
posed to result. 

For it is found that the intensity of color and 
the quantity of secretions are in proportion to 
the exposure to light and air, as is shown 
by the deeper color of the upper side of 
leaves, &c. 

And by the fact, that if plants be grown in 
air from which light is excluded, neither color 
nor secretions are formed, as is exemplified in 
blanched vegetables ; which, if even naturally 
poisonous, may, from want of exposure to light, 
become wholesome, as Celery. 

When any color appears in parts developed 
in the dark it is generally caused by the absorp- 
tion of such coloring matter as pre-existed in 
the root or other body from which the blanched 
shoot proceeds, as in some kinds of Rhubarb 
when forced. 

Or by the deposition of coloring matter form- 
ed by parts developed in light, as in the subter- 
ranean roots of Beet, Carrots, &c. 

What is true of color is also true of flavor, 
which equally depends upon light for its ex- 
istence ; because flavor is produced by chemi- 
6 



62 AIR AND LIGHT. 

cal alterations in the sap caused by exposure to 
light. 

The same thing occurs in regard to nutritive 
matter, which in like manner is formed by the 
exposure of leaves to light, Thus the Potato 
when forced in dark houses contains no more 
farinaceous matter than previously existed in 
the original tuber ; but acquires it in abundance 
when placed in the light, and deposits it in pro- 
portion as it is influenced by light and air. 
Thus, also, if Peaches are grown in wooden 
houses, at a distance from the light, they will 
form so little nutritive matter as to be unable 
to support a crop of fruit, the greater part of 
which will fall off. And for a similar reason 
it is only the outside shoots of standard fruit 
trees that bear fruit. Considerations of this 
kind form in part the basis of pruning and 
training. 

Light is the most powerful stimulus that can 
be employed to excite the vital actions of plants, 
and its energy is in proportion to its intensity ; 
so that the direct rays of the sun will produce 
much more powerful effects than the diffused 
light of day. 

Hence, if buds, that are very excitable are 
placed in the shade, their excitability will be 
checked. 



AIR AND LIGHT. 63 

And if buds that are very torpid are exposed 
to direct light, they will be stimulated into 
action. 

So that what parts of a tree shall first begin 
to grow in the spring may be determined at the 
will of the cultivator. 

This is the key to some important practices 
in forcing. 

This should also cause attention to be paid 
to shading buds from the direct rays of the sun 
in particular cases : as in that of cuttings, 
whose buds, if too rapidly excited, might ex- 
haust their only reservoir of sap, the stem, 
before new roots were formed to repair such 
loss. 

As plants derive an essential part of their 
food from the air by the action of light, it fol- 
lows that in glass-houses those which admit the 
greatest portion of light are the best adapted for 
purposes of cultivation. 

And as it has been found by experiment, 
that light passes more freely through a cur- 
vilinear than through a plane roof, and through 
glass forming an acute angle with the horizon 
than through perpendicular glass, it follows that 
a curvilinear roof is best, and a plane roof with 
glass perpendicular sides the worst adapted to 
the purposes of the cultivator. 



64 PERSPIRATION. 

For the same reason common green glass is 
less fitted for glazing forcing-houses than white 
crown glass. 

Poisonous gases in very minute quantities 
act upon vegetation with great energy. A ten- 
thousandth part of sulphurous acid gas is quickly 
fatal to the life of plants ; and hence the danger 
of flues heated by coal fires, and the impossi- 
bility of making many species grow in the 
vicinity of houses heated by coal fires, or in 
large towns. 

Heating by hot water is now so well under- 
stood, and so simplified by the method of first 
heating the air in a large reservoir, or air cham- 
ber, from which it circulates to any required 
part, either of a green house or dwelling house, 
that no one erecting a glass structure for plants 
would now think of heating on the old princi- 
ple of the fire flue. 

Perspiration. 

It is not, however, exclusively by the action 
of light and air that the nature of sap is al- 
tered. Evaporation from the leaves is con- 
stantly going on during the growth of a plant, 
and sometimes is so copious, that an individual 



PERSPIRATION. 65 

will perspire its own weight of water in the 
course of 24 hours. 

The loss thus occasioned by the leaves is 
supplied by crude fluid, a large portion of 
which is water, absorbed by the roots, and con- 
veyed up the stem with great rapidity. 

The consequence of such copious perspira- 
tion is the separation and solidification of the 
carbonised matter that is produced for the pe- 
culiar secretions of a species. 

For the maintenance of a plant in health, it 
is indispensable that the supply of fluid by the 
roots should be continual and uninterrupted. 

If any thing causes perspiration to take place 
faster than it can be counteracted by the ab- 
sorption of fluid from the earth, plants will be 
dried up and perish. 

Such causes are, destruction of spongioles, 
an insufficient quantity of fluid in the soil, an 
exposure of the spongioles to occasional dry- 
ness, and a dry atmosphere. 

The most ready means of counteracting the 
evil consequences of an imperfect action of the 
roots is by preventing or diminishing evapora- 
tion. 

This is to be effected by rendering the atmos- 
phere extremely humid. 
6* 



66 PERSPIRATION. 

Thus, in curvilinear iron hot-houses, in which 
the atmosphere becomes so dry in consequence 
of the heat that plants perish, it is necessary 
that the air should be rendered extremely hu- 
mid, by throwing water upon pavement, or by 
introducing steam. 

And in transplantation in dry weather, ever- 
greens, or plants in leaf, often die, because the 
spongioles are destroyed, or so far injured in 
the operation as to be unable to act, while tho 
leaves never cease to perspire. 

The greater certainty of transplanting plants 
that have been growing in pots is from this lat- 
ter circumstance intelligible ; 

While the utility of putting cuttings or newly 
transplanted seedlings into a shady damp at- 
mosphere, is explained by the necessity of les- 
sening evaporation produced by solar light. 

The admission of air or ventilation, as it is 
called, is not generally well understood by gar- 
deners. Much light has been thrown on this 
subject, since the invention of the air tight 
boxes of Mr. Ward, in which, owing to the 
total exclusion of currents of air (ventilation) 
the evaporation from the surface of the earth 
and plants is constant, according to the heat, 



PERSPIRATION. 67 

and tlio atmosphere is thus kept uniformly 
moist, not, as in green houses, moist all night 
and dried by ventilation all day. The only 
way of growing plants to perfection in rooms, 
is in these Ward's boxes — and the plants 
in most glass structures would thrive better 
with much less ventilation. The greater the 
heat the more moisture is required. The 
custom of gardeners seems preposterous, to 
deluge the floors of green houses with water 
to create a damp atmosphere, and then ven- 
tilate freely, which dries it up. This capricious 
change is very injurious to plants. 

It is thought by some geologists, that the 
gigantic growth of the plants of former ages, 
of which such beautiful specimens are daily 
discovered in coal mines, was favored by the 
extreme heat and moisture with which the sur- 
face of the globe was then covered. 

Mr. Knight, in a forcing house devoted to 
experiment, never gave air to his grapes until 
nearly ripe, even in hottest and brightest 
weather, farther than just necessary to prevent 
the leaves being destroyed by excess of heat, 
and employed very little fire heat. Many hot 
houses are now built in Europe without any 
means of ventilation. It must be remembered, 



68 CUTTINGS. 

however, that dampness, unaccompanied by- 
warmth and light, will produce fungi and all 
their injurious concomitants. 



Cuttings. 

When a separate portion of a plant is caused 
to produce new roots and branches, and to in- 
crease an individual, it is a cutting. 

Cuttings are of two sorts, — cuttings properly 
so called, and eyes. 

A cutting consists of an internodium, (space 
between bud and bud) or a part of one, with its 
nodus and leaf-bud. 

When the internodium is plunged in the 
earth it attracts fluid from the soil, and nour- 
ishes the bud until it can feed itself. 

The bud, feeding at first upon the matter in 
the internodium, gradually elongates upwards 
into a branch, and sends organised matter 
downwards, which becomes roots. 

As soon as it has established a communica- 
tion with the soil, it becomes a new individual, 
exactly like that from which it was taken. 

As it is the action of the leaf-buds that causes 
growth in a cutting, it follows that no cutting 
without a leaf-bud will grow ; 



CUTTINGS. 69 

Unless the cutting has great vitality and 
power of forming adventitious leaf-buds, which 
sometimes happens. 

An eye is a leaf-bud without an internodium. 

It only differs from a cutting in having no 
reservoir of food on which to exist, and in 
emitting its roots immediately from the base of 
the leaf-bud into the soil. 

As cuttings will very often, if not always, 
develope leaves before any powerful connec- 
tion is formed between them and the soil, 
they arc peculiarly liable to suffer from perspi- 
ration. 

Hence the importance of maintaining their 
atmosphere in an uniform state of humidity, as 
is effected by putting bell or other glasses over 
them. 

In this case, however, it is necessary that 
if air-tight covers are employed, such as bell 
glasses, they should be from time to time re- 
moved and replaced, for the sake of getting 
rid of excessive humidity. 

Layers differ from cuttings in nothing ex- 
cept that they strike root into the soil while yet 
adhering to the parent plant. 

Whatever is true of cuttings is true of layers, 
except that the latter are not liable to suffer by 



70 CUTTINGS. 

evaporation, because of their communication 
with the parent plant. 

As cuttings strike roots into the earth by the 
action of leaves or leaf-buds, it might be sup- 
posed that they will strike most readily when 
the leaves or leaf-buds are in their greatest 
vigor. 

Nevertheless, this power is controlled so 
much by the peculiar vital powers of different 
species, and by secondary considerations, that 
it is impossible to say that this is an absolute 
rule. 

Thus Dahlias and other herbaceous plants 
will strike root freely when cuttings are very 
young ; and Heaths, Azaleas, and other hard 
wooded plants, only when the wood has just 
begun to harden. 

The former is, probably, owing to some spe- 
cific vital excitability, the force of which we 
cannot appreciate ; the latter either to a kind 
of torpor, which seems to seize such plants 
when their tissue is once emptied of fluid, or to 
a natural slowness to send downwards woody 
matter, whether for wood or not, which is the 
real cause of their wood being harder. 

If ripened cuttings are upon the whole the 
most fitted for multiplication, it is because their 






CUTTINGS. 71 

tissue is less absorbent than when younger, and 
that they are less likely to suffer from either 
repletion or evaporation. 

For to gorge tissue with food, before leaves 
are in action to decompose and assimilate it, is 
as prejudicial as to empty tissue by the action 
of leaves, before spongioles are prepared to 
replenish it. 

For this reason pure silex, in which no stim- 
ulating substances are contained (silver sand,) 
is the best adapted for promoting the rooting of 
cuttings that strike with difficulty. 

And for the same reason cuttings with what 
gardeners call a heel to them, or a piece of 
the older wood, strike root more readily than 
such as are not so protected. The greater 
age of the tissue of the heel renders it less 
absorbent than tissue that is altogether newly 
formed. 

It is to avoid the bad effect of evaporation 
that a proportion of the leaves are usually re- 
moved from a cutting, when it is first pre- 
pared. 

The method of striking cuttings in double 
pots, the outer filled with earth in which the 
cuttings are placed with the ends inserted in 
the earth touching the sides of the inner one, 



72 scions. 

which is kept filled with water has for the 
above reason been attended with success. 

The directions for propagating by cuttings in 
European publications, generally state the 
month for placing them in the earth ; these 
directions would be apt to mislead in this coun- 
try, where the difference of temperature ripens 
wood at a different period. 

Cuttings will strike at any period of the year 
when the young wood is sufficiently ripe and 
the plant is continuing its growth, but not when 
it is in a state of rest. 

Scions. 

A scion is a cutting which is caused to grow 
upon another plant, and not in earth. 

Scions are of two sorts, scions properly so 
called, and buds. 

Whatever is true of cuttings is true also of 
scions, all circumstances being equal. 

When a scion is fitted on to another plant, 
it attracts fluid from it for the nourishment of 
its leaf-buds until they can feed themselves. 

Its buds thus fed gradually grow upwards 
into branches, and send woody matter down- 
wards, which is analogous to roots. 



scions. 73 

At the same time the cellular substance of 
the scion and its stock adheres so as to form a 
complete organic union. 

The woody matter descending from the buds 
passes through the cellular substance into the 
stock, where it occupies the same situation as 
would have been occupied by woody matter 
supplied by buds belonging to the stock itself. 

Once united, the scion covers the wood of 
the stock with new wood, and causes the pro- 
duction of new roots. 

But the character of the woody matter sent 
down by the scion over the wood of the stock 
being determined by the cellular tissue, which 
has exclusively a horizontal development, it 
follows that the wood of the stock will always 
remain apparently the same, although it is fur- 
nished by the scion. 

While the preparations of the juices being 
effected by the leaves of the scion, the produce 
thereof will be the same as the species from 
which the scion was taken. 

Some scions will grow upon a stock without 
being able to transmit any woody matter into 
it; as some Cacti, which have only a small 
central development of woody tissue. 

When this happens, the adhesion of the two 
7 



74 scions. 

takes place by the cellular substance only, and 
the union is so imperfect that a slight degree of 
violence suffices to dissever them. 

And in such cases the buds are fed by their 
woody matter, which absorbs the ascending sap 
from the stock at the point where the adhesion 
has occurred ; and the latter, never augmenting 
in diameter, is finally overgrown by the scion. 
When, in such instances, the communication 
between the stock and the scion is so much in- 
terrupted that the sap can no longer ascend with 
sufficient rapidity into the branches, the latter 
die ; as in many Peaches. 

This incomplete union between the scion and 
its stock is owing to some constitutional or or- 
ganic difference in the two. 

Therefore care should be taken that when 
plants are grafted on one another their constitu- 
tion should be as nearly as possible identical. 

As adhesion of only an imperfect nature 
takes place when the scion and stock are, to a 
certain degree, dissimilar in constitution, so will 
no adhesion whatever occur when their consti- 
tutional differences are very decided. 

Hence it is only species very nearly allied in 
nature that can be grafted on each other. 

As only similar tissues will unite, it is neces- 
sary in applying a scion to the stock that similar 



SCIONS. 



75 



parts should be carefully adapted to each other ; 
as bark to bark, cambium to cambium, and al- 
burnum to alburnum. 

The second is more especially requisite, be- 
cause it is through the cambium that the woody 
matter sent downwards by the buds must pass ; 
and also because cambium itself, being organ- 
ising matter in an incipient state, will more 
readily form an adhesion than any other part. 
The same principles apply to buds, which are 
to scions precisely what eyes are to cuttings. 

Inarching is the same with reference to 
grafting that layering is with reference to 
striking by cuttings. 

It serves to maintain the vitality of a scion 
until it can form an adhesion with its stock; 
and must be considered the most certain mode 
of grafting. 

It is probable that every species of flowering 
plant, without exception, may be multiplied by 
grafting. 

Nevertheless, there are many species and 
even tribes that never have been grafted. 

It has been found that in the Vine and the 
Walnut this difficulty can be overcome by atten- 
tion to their peculiar constitutions; and it is 
probable that the same attention will remove 
supposed difficulties in the case of other species. 



76 scions. 

It is certain that scions thrive better on some 
stocks even of the same species than others, 
and that this depends somewhat on the soil in 
which the stock grows ; this is a subject how- 
ever on which there has been so much discus- 
sion, and on which practical experience has yet 
so much to develop, that no certain general 
rules can be laid down, particularly in this 
country. 

From what has been said on perspiration it 
seems that the practice of budding on the 
northern side of stems must be correct. 

Mr. Knight often applied two ligatures to his 
buddings on Peach trees, one above the bud 
across the transverse incision, the other below, 
this last was taken off as soon as the bud ad- 
hered, the upper one was left on, thus obstruct- 
ing the flow of the sap upwards and throwing 
it into the bud, which then vegetated early and 
produced blossoms the following spring. As 
soon as the new shoot had attained about four 
inches in length the upper bandage was re- 
moved and the sap suffered to flow freely. By 
following this practice with roses, and by judi- 
cious heading down, I have obtained very large 
and healthy bushes on the top of a single 
straight stem the third year. 



transplantation. 77 

Transplantation. 

Transplantation consists in removing a plant 
from the soil in which it is growing to some 
other soil. 

If in the operation the plant is torpid, and 
its spongioles uninjured, the removal will not 
be productive of any interruption to the pre- 
vious rate of growth. 

And if it is growing, or evergreen, and the 
spongioles are uninjured, the removal will pro- 
duce no further injury than may arise from the 
temporary suspension of the action of the spon- 
gioles, and the noncessation of perspiration 
during the operation. 

So that transplantation may take place at all 
seasons of the year, and under all circumstan- 
ces, provided the spongioles are uninjured. 

This applies to the largest trees as well as to 
the smallest herbs. 

But as it is impossible to take plants out of the 
earth without destroying or injuring the spongio- 
les, the evil consequences of such accidents must 
be remedied by the hindrance of evaporation. 

Transplantation should therefore take place 
only when plants are torpid, and when their 

respiratory organs (leaves) are absent; or, if 

»7# 



78 TRANSPLANTATION. 

they never lose those organs, as evergreens, 
only at seasons when the atmosphere is peri- 
odically charged with humidity for some con- 
siderable time. 

Old trees in which the roots are much in- 
jured form new ones so slowly, that they are 
very liable to be exhausted of sap by the ab- 
sorption of their very numerous young buds 
before new spongioles can be formed. 

The amputation of all their upper extremities 
is the most probable prevention of death ; but 
in most cases injury of their roots is without a 
remedy. 

Plants in pots being so circumstanced that 
the spongioles are protected from injury, can, 
however, be transplanted at all seasons, without 
any dangerous consequences. 

On the subject of transplantation much dif- 
ference of opinion exists, particularly as to the 
most favorable period of performing this opera- 
tion. Lindley has several pages of argument 
in favor of transplanting in the autumn as soon 
as the fall of the leaf indicates a recession of 
the sap, and of course a stillness of vegetation. 
I have planted many trees in England and agree 
with him that November and December are the 
most preferable months — but it is not clear that 
the same arguments are true in this climate. 



TRANSPLANTATION. 79 

Trees are not generally taken up with the 
same care here as there, and even if they were, 
the roots and small fibres are still usually much 
wounded and injured. If transplanted in Sep- 
tember or October just previous to the frost 
entering the ground, there is not time for these 
injuries to heal before the action of the severe 
frosts of our winters, which is sure to penetrate 
to them as the earth is loosened all round by 
transplanting; this action of the frost on the 
lacerated roots must of course be in many 
cases fatal. Again in March and April, par- 
ticularly the former, the most drying winds of 
the year prevail in England, which is unfavor- 
able to transplantation as increasing the evapo- 
ration. Here the earth in those months is usually 
extremely moist from the melting of the snow, 
&c. Hence it would appear that these months 
are more favorable for the operation of trans- 
plantation here than in England — and it seems 
probable that there is less chance of failure in 
this climate by transplanting early in the spring 
than in the autumn ; still I have now before 
me several trees transplanted in November 
which have stood this severe winter, and are 
now in full leaf and beauty. Also the spon- 
gioles of the roots of trees transplanted in 
autumn are better settled in the earth, absorb 



80 TRANSPLANTATION. 

the juices quicker and develop their foliage 
earlier and more abundantly than those moved 
in the spring ; therefore there is a gain of time. 
From these considerations it may be more cor- 
rect to transplant all hardy trees and those 
very tenacious of life in the autumn ; imme- 
diately after the first frost, but all tender trees as 
Pears, Peaches, &c, it is safer to transplant in 
the spring. Evergreens, as the Fir, Arbor vita;, 
&c, arc better moved in the spring also. 

With respect to the age of the tree when 
transplantation should take place, there is no 
doubt that young trees are the best even for 
immediate beauty and effect. In moving a 
large tree great expense and care are requisite, 
and even then it is probable that considerable 
pruning must take place to restore the equili- 
brium between the roots and the branches, by 
which operation the tree remains an unsightly 
object for years, and probably does not recover 
its original size before a young tree would pro- 
duce nearly the same effect, the young one 
remaining a beautiful object all the time. 

Therefore except in cases of extremely rare 
specimens, it is better to abandon the idea of 
transplanting old trees. 

Many plants of Rhododendron maximum and 
Magnolia glauca are annually brought in the 



MANURES. 81 

spring from their native spots in this vicinity 
for sale; the purchasers generally select the 
largest and finest, of course the oldest speci- 
mens, for which the highesl price is paid. They 
then wonder they will not grow. If such were 
planted in a moist shady spot and headed down 
they might have a fair chance of surviving, but 
younger plants would be far preferable. 

Hardy herbaceous plants, the ornament of 
the open garden in summer, if kept in pots can 
be transplanted at any time of the year. The 
nursery men who would make a practice of 
keeping them in this state, would sell many to 
their summer visiters, who are delighted with 
the specimens soon in flower, but afterwards 
forget them. 

Manures. 

This subject is difficult to reduce to the few 
observations permitted by the size of this work. 

The purpose of manure is to supply those 
juices and gases to the roots of plants, of which 
the soil has been exhausted by their previous 
action — and in proportion to the quantity of 
this supply will plants acquire luxuriance or 
remain weak. Plants differ however in their 
capacity of thriving on manure. Vines, roses, 



82 MANURES. 

and others can scarcely ever be too much 
manured — the Pine family will hardly bear 
any — the Cacti, which naturally vegetate on 
rocks and in sand, will if manured attain an 
excessive vigorous growth. The variety of 
manures and their useful application to differ- 
ent plants are almost infinite. 

Loamy clay absorbs heat slowly, retains 
moisture so tenaciously as to prevent drain- 
age, and is so compact as to hinder the passage 
of the young spongioles of the root through it. 
Yet mixed with a large quantity of sand, peat, 
lime and manure, it becomes valuable ; its 
capability of retaining moisture enabling it to 
hold the solutions of the peat, lime, and manure 
until gradually used by the roots, which valu- 
able solutions would quickly run through a 
light sandy soil without clay, before the roots 
had time to absorb them. 

Silex or the component part of sand, when 
dissolved by the potash, soda, or other alkaline 
properties of manure, enters into the tissue of 
many plants, and largely into all grassy plants ; 
it is supposed to be the chief cause of the stiff- 
ness or rigidity of the stem — hence it is valu- 
able as a manure ; it also lightens heavy clayey 
soils. Calcareous earth or lime also enters in 
appreciable quantity into many plants in the 



MANURES. 83 

shape of oxalate or phosphate of lime — bone 
manure now so much used is phosphate of 
lime. The salts of potash and soda are like- 
wise found in abundance in plants, hence, 
besides the power possessed by these and some 
other salts of dissolving various substances 
found in the earth so as to make them fit juices 
for absorption by roots, they themselves are 
valuable manures in the shape of common salt 
muriate of soda) saltpetre, (nitrate of potash) 
&c, but they should be applied in small 
quantities. Ulmin or geine, a peculiar sub- 
stance resulting chiefly from vegetable decom- 
position and existing in abundance in peat and 
in common manure, has lately been brought 
into notoriety in the Geological reports of 
different States, and represented as the essential 
part of manure, without a supply of which to 
vegetables all fruit will fail. 

Much direct experiment is still wanting to 
ascertain the true value and operations of this 
substance. The small knowledge hitherto pos- 
sessed on the subject is however rather in favor 
of the theory. 

Those who consider the chemical constituents 
of a soil as the sole tests of its value for the growth 
of plants, will be much in error in practice. 

Minerals and metals or rather their oxides 



84 MANURES. 

exist in plants — as sulphur in the cruciferous 
family, particularly in mustard, copper in coffee, 
wheat, and many other plants, iron in tobacco, 
gold in the sage, &c, but these can only be 
taken up by the roots as solutions of their 
oxides, nothing solid being able to pass through 
the spongioles. 

Some manures sensibly affect the colors of 
flowers as is well known to the tulip growers, 
even a moderate quantity of manure spoils all 
their favorite stripes. The change of the pink 
color of Hydrangea into purple is probably 
produced by some manure containing excess 
of alkali. 

The following statement of the strength of 
manures on oats, rye, and barley, is extracted 
by Decandolle from Hermstadt (Annalcn dcr 
Landwissenschaft, Annals of Agriculture.) 

Rye. Barley. Oats. 

Sheeps dung on, 13 fold. 1C fold. 14 fold. 

Goats " 13 15 15 

Horse " 11 13 14 

Cow " 11 16 

Human fajces 13 13 14£ 

Pigeons " 9 10 12 

Human urine, 13 13 13 

Dry bullocks blood, 14 10 12£ 

Vegetable earth, 7 13 

Unmanured soil, 4 4 5 

These trials were under exactly equal cir- 
cumstances, but it would have been more 
satisfactory had the experiment been tried un- 



MANURES. 85 

der all equal circumstances except the quality 
of the natural soil, which should have varied in 
particulars of composition, tenacity, silicious, 
calcareous and other natural admixtures. 

The refuse from Sugar Refineries has been 
considered a powerful manure, particularly 
from those where animal charcoal or burnt and 
pulverized bone is used in the process — and 
this refuse has been carried at great expense 
from the Refineries at St. Petersburg to the 
South of France for the purpose of manuring 
the Vineyards. It consists of carbon and phos- 
phate of lime in exceedingly minute division, 
also of vegetable mucilage, the vegetable 
coloring matter of sugar which is probably 
carbon in another state, and a portion of 
saccharine juice. 

The carbon may be converted into carbonic 
acid and received into a plant for the purpose 
of being afterwards decomposed and depositing 
its carbon there, the phosphate of lime we 
know from the action of bone manure is very 
powerful, and in this case is so very finely 
divided that its action must be rapid. Of the 
effect of the mucilage, I am ignorant, whether 
being vegetable it is capable of being converted 
into geine or not, but I suspect not as it re- 
8 



86 MANURES. 



sembles the substance thrown off by roots ; the 
saccharine juice is in sufficient abundance to 
create the strongest fermentation and heat, so 
much so that the boards with which a vessel 
was lined inside while carrying a cargo of this 
refuse from St. Petersburg tu Marseilles were 
completely converted through and through into 
charcoal. There is no doubt therefore that it 
is a moel effective manure, but it requires 
great caution in the use. and to be mixed with 
a large quantity «>f earth previous to application, 
otherwise its heat will completely destroy \ 
tation. One injurious effect it produced how- 
ever was to i scite th<- vines so excessively that 
when ii was impossible to obtain this stimulus 
none other could be found to supply its place, 
and the vines fell into a state of weakness. 

It has lately been subjected to fermentation 
lor the purpose of manufacturing vinegar from 
it previous to its application to the soil. This of 
course by abstracting the saccharine juice, 
leaving a portion of acetic acid in the mass, 
and perhaps by destroying in some measure 
the phosphate of lime, much impairs its quality 
as a manure. 

On the much discussed question of the com- 
parative value of manure applied fresh from the 
stable, or applied after it has lain in a heap for 



MANURES. 87 

some months and fermented, it appears that 
exposure to rain dissolves the salts it contains, 
which are lost hy washing away, and the heat 
of fermentation dissipates the gases in the 
atmosphere. Both these are of value to the 
roots of plants. 

On the other hand, on the theory of Geine, 
the fermentation of manure, kept in a heap, de- 
composes the vegetable substance and converts 
it into geine, which is thus in a fit state for imme- 
diate application to the roots, while manure, if 
spread over the earth in a fresh state, does not 
heal at all and decomposes very slowly, a great 
proportion of the gases being also lost. 

The application of liquid manure to plants, par- 
ticularly those grown in potfl or tuba, is consider- 
ably practised, and certainly with great advan- 
tage. This liquid manure is usually prepared 
by steeping manure in water and drawing it off 
when clear, and of the color of beer or porter. 
The above argument applies also to this method. 

The substances found in plants by analysis 
are by no means true tests that those substances 
are required as manure to make them flourish ; 
thus there may be very little lime found in a 
vegetable, on analysis, and yet lime as phos- 
phate, (bone manure) carbonate, (common 
8* 



88 MANURES. 

lime) or even sulphate (gypsum) may be a 
useful manure for that vegetable — for lime 
neutralizes acids which may be found in the 
soil, many of which are injurious ; it decom- 
poses and prepares various other substances, as 
mucilage or gum which readily dissolves and 
alters phosphate of lime, thus the hurtful exuda- 
tions of roots partly possessing this mucilaginous 
nature may perhaps thereby be rendered inno- 
cuous or useful, &c. There is indeed perhaps 
as much or more yet to be discovered on this 
subject than what we actually know. 

Man sows and cultivates many acres of the 
same plant together, hence arises the necessity 
of manure and rotation. Nature mixes all her 
plants in varied and beautiful profusion — 
hence, no manure or rotation is necessary, the 
exudations of the roots of one plant become 
food for another, and the same plants remain 
growing on the same spots for years, nay ages. 
Yet when nature does, as in the case of forests, 
produce the same tree to a large extent — the 
American forests teach us that there rotation 
also becomes necessary. It would be a curious 
experiment to endeavor to ascertain whether 
the exudations of parasitical plants were benefi- 
cial or otherwise to the trees on which they are 
said to feed. 



INDEX. 



The members n 


far to the pages. 


Acidity, 48. 


Fertility, 30. 


Adhesion, 9. 


Flavor, 48. 


Alburnum, 19. 


Floral envelopes, 34. 


Anther, 41. 


Flowers, stunted branches, 


Axil, 22. 


35. 




Flowers, 34. 


Bell glasses, 09. 


double, 39. 


Euds7 26, 


proliferous, 39. 


Bulbs, 24. 


« discoid compound, 




39. 


Calyx, 34. 


Fruit, 45. 


Cambium, 21. 


Flues, 04. 


Carbonic acid, 32. 




Cells, 8. 


Germination, 55. 


Cellular tissue, 2. 


Glass-houses, 03. 


Color, 01. 


Grafting, 73. 


Corolla, 34. 




Cuticle, 30. 


Heart- wood, 19. 


Cuttings, G8. 


Hybridising, 50. 


Darkness, 39. 


Inarching, 75. 




Insipidity, 49. 


Embryo, 51. 


lnternodia, 19. 


Endogenous, 19. 




Evaporation, 04. 


Layers, 09. 


Evergreens, 80. 


Leaf-buds, regular, 22. 


Excrementitious matter, 


, adventitious, 22, 


10. 


27. 


Exogenous, 19. 


Leaves, 29. 


Eyes, 20. 


Light and air, 60. 



90 



INDEX. 



Liber, 20. 

Manures, 81. 
Medullary rays, 20. 

Nodi, 19. 
Nitrogen, 15. 

Ovula, 51. 

Petals, 4. 
Pistill, 41. 

Poisonous gases, 64. 
Pollen, 41. 
Potted plants, 78. 
Perspiration, 64. 

Root, 11. 

Rotation of crops, 16. 

Sap, its motion, 57. 

, accumulation of, 59. 

Sap-wood, 11). 
Scion, 25. 
Seed, 51. 
Sepals, 34. 



Seed-saving, 52, 5b. 
Silver grain, 20. 
Spiral vessels, 9. 
Sport, 38. 
Spongioles, 11. 
Stamens, 41. 
Stem, 18. 
Sterility, 36, 59. 
Stigma, 42. 
Stock, 25. 
Stomata, 11. 
Stoning, 46. 
Sweetness, 48. 

Tissue, 1. 
Training, 62. 
Transplantation, 77. 
Tubers, 11. 

Varieties, 38. 
Vascular tissue, 8. 



Wood, how formed, 8, 
Woody fibre, 8. 
Worn out soil, 16. 



ubbaWJ* 



CONGRESS 




0Q001361350 



